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Blog: Deutsche Bank Young Entrepreneurs Competition

London Area Manager Michael Anderson blogs about the competition final

The Deutsche Bank 2013 finalists

As I write, students representing eight schools from across the length and breadth of London are making their way to BT’s St. Paul’s offices for the London Final of the Young Entrepreneurs Competition.

Young Enterprise have been working with Deutsche Bank to deliver the Young Entrepreneurs programme in cities across the UK. Deutsche Bank’s support is part of their youth engagement programme, which enables young people from disadvantaged areas and backgrounds to fulfil their potential.

The programme was developed to encourage more young people from inner city state schools to take part in and gain as much as possible from the Young Enterprise experience, developing valuable employability skills, and it has successfully increased participation within this hard-to-reach group.

In an exciting and demanding competition modelled on our flagship Company Programme, students aged 14-19 have been given expert help to start their own businesses by a team of Business Advisers. This afternoon, the best of London’s companies will set up trade stands, make their ‘elevator pitch’ and show their short promo videos to their fellow participants, an invited audience and – most importantly – a panel of judges, ready and waiting to run the rule over them. They are competing for the following awards:

The Green Award

Innovation Award

Marketing Award

Best Overall Company

Special Recognition Award

The Best Overall Company and the first runner-up will proceed to the National Final on 30th April.

For our Master of Ceremonies, we are excited to welcome Salima Hirji, a Canadian graduate of our North American counterpart, Junior Achievement – her company, Smile, won the North American Final back in 2009, so she knows exactly what these students are going through! Since moving to London Salima has been working for TrueStart, a retail and consumer-focused hub for start-ups, proving her commitment to helping a fresh generation of entrepreneurs.

Words of wisdom will be provided courtesy of our Guest Speaker this afternoon, Jennifer Welford, former Princes Trust Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Jennifer founded online retailer The Pokey Hat and was nominated for Retailer of the Year at the 2013 Scottish Fashion Awards, and is involved today via her new role at Accounts & Legal, an exciting young company and new London supporter of Young Enterprise. We look forward to welcoming Jennifer and colleagues to many future events, including sponsorship of the Best Report award at the Company of the Year Awards London Final in June.

All in all we are looking forward to a really exciting event, a high standard of competition, and a huge leap forward in the development of these young people! Thanks to all of our supporters making the event possible, in particular Deutsche Bank – and watch this space for news of the winners…